Sunday, September 11, 2011

Fresh Organic Heirloom Tomato Juice


Nothing yummier in your homemade chili than homegrown, vine-ripened, heirloom tomato juice!  I'd never made any before, but I had some extra tomatoes and figured I'd make up a batch.  It is extremely easy and I tell you what, I can't wait for that northern breeze to blow because I'll head straight for the kitchen and start a batch of homemade chili!  Actually.....I can wait for that northern breeze to blow because I don't have enough canned up yet and there are still blooms out on the vines.

Here's the recipe I used,
if you know of a better one, please let me know.  I love finding new recipes!


Tomato Juice

22 pounds of organic heirloom tomatoes (any variety of heirlooms will do)
3/4 cup diced carrots
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon salt
bottled lemon juice

Wash the tomatoes.  Remove core and quarter the tomatoes.  Combine all of the vegetables in a large saucepot and simmer for 20 minutes.  Stir to prevent sticking.  Press through a food mill or sieve.  Stir in salt.  Heat juice for 5 minutes at 190 degrees F.  Do not boil.  Add 2 Tablespoon bottled lemon juice to each pint jar.  Ladle hot juice into hot jars, leaving 1/4" headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process pints for 40 minutes, quarts 45 minutes, in a boiling-water canner.  Makes about 14 pints or 7 quarts.

The method I used was to put all of the vegetables through our juicer, simmered it for about 30 minutes after mixing in the salt, then added the parsley before ladling it into the hot jars.  Doing it that way reduces it to strictly juice and it is pretty thin.  Next time I will probably follow the recipe to see if it comes out a bit thicker.

Note:  Juice will settle and appear to separate

Shared at:  Homestead Revival, Raising Homemakers, 21st Century Housewife,   

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I canned the juice from the tomotoes I strained for salsa- after getting the skins off the tomatoes, I roughly chopped them in a food processor & let them sit overnight. Then I strained most of the juice (so I didn't have to let it cook down so much for a thicker salsa). I boiled that juice till it was about 2/3 of the original volume & then canned it.
I'm not sure of the nutritional value of the juice, but I hate wasting things. I think it'd be better with the addition of veggies as your recipe calls for.

Melissa

Sharon said...

I completely understand having a hard time wasting anything. Any form of vegetable liquid or broth can be used in soups and stews! By the end of winter, it seems like I never have enough saved back.

Swathi said...

Delicious, thanks of the healthy juice with tomato. thanks once again for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop.